"Family Responsibilities" on Common App

<p>Would it be worth it to put down on the Activities section that I babysit my siblings during the school year or would it be meaningless to mention it?</p>

<p>Depends…
If it’s like mom and dad work late every night and you have to watch your siblings to keep your family afloat then definitely put it down. If it’s mom and dad go out once a week and you watch the kids for a few hours that’s different, not really a family responsibility imo.</p>

<p>There’s a difference between having to go above and beyond for your family and doing your chores. The above poster is absolutely right. Here’s something similar - It’s one thing to pay your own phone bill; that’s not a hardship. Paying all of your family’s bills is abnormal. So if you qualify for that, definitely consider putting that down.</p>

<p>The intent behind adding “Family Responsibilities” is to allow students to report significant family time commitments, perhaps ones that may even present these students from engaging in other activities. Before now, these students had no systematic way to report such information on the application. What you choose to report or not report is, of course, a judgement call. If you’re not sure what to do, check with your guidance counselor.</p>

<p>Yep - freshman year I had to babysit my sister while my parents were at work. It prevented me from doing a lot of volunteering but I quickly found a way into it sophomore year. </p>

<p>I would definitely put that down, though, even if you’re fighting to squeeze in your extracurriculars.</p>

<p>Well yeah, I pretty much babysat my siblings everyday except weekends during the school year. I had to pick them up from school and watch them for about 2 hours. Because of this I wasn’t really able to participate in after school activities. What do you guys think, now that you have this additional information about me? lol</p>

<p>I know this is an old thread, but I am in a very similar situation as OP after reading the post directly above this one. How do I go about this?</p>